Second Time Around!

The Mount Maunganui Hot Salt Water Pools-One Of Our Favorite Places On The Planet!

Birthday Girl!

The morning of our last full day of the cruise started out with a steady, kinda chilly rain. As I've said before you can't judge the day by the weather because it was perfect for what we had planned.
We were in the Bay of Plenty at Mount Maunganui. Our sites were set on revisiting something we discovered on a previous trip, The Mount Maunganui Hot Salt Water Pools.
These pools take advantage of the geothermal activity in the area and the endless supply of salt water to produce a magical elixir for soaking.
I'm not sure what the world record is for soaking and I'm sure we weren't close to it but we did a little over two hours. The hot pools were everything we remembered them to be and more. It was great to visit them again!
By early afternoon the rain was gone and the sun was out. We enjoyed the small beach community before heading off to retrace our journey up the dormant volcano that is Mount Maunganui.
While the climb up is nothing overly taxing it does go from sea level to about 1000 feet in around 40 minutes. It did seem as if the mountain had gotten a little steeper than it was fifteen years ago. The reward of the views from the top are well worth the effort!
The awesome day was made even more special because it was with the "birthday girl"!  We actually celebrated Beth's birthday for about 48 straight hours taking advantage of both the New Zealand time zone we are in and the eastern & central time zones back in the US. It was truly a special day with a special person.
Right now the words to one of my favorite Jimmy Buffett songs is playing over and over in my head; "and those harbor lights, oh they're coming into view. It's been a lovely cruise...."